The Lost Colony
by Blze001
Summary: Scanning a Prothean cache saved from the Reapers, Liara comes across interesting information about a human colony relocated 50,000 years ago by the Protheans. Given approval to investigate, Shepard and Liara launch a mission to find this lost colony. What they discover is less than idyllic.
1. Chapter 1

A/N: So, I just had this crazy idea for a crossover story and decided to quickly hammer out a first chapter. If there is interest, I'll gladly continue it.

* * *

"I hate to rain on your parade, sweetie, but I'm not sure the Alliance is anxious to know more about Prothean tech." Mara leaned over Li's head, looking down at the desk, "I mean, maybe eventually, but not right now."

Liara sighed, looking up a Mara and smiling gently, "I know. This is more for me than anyone else." She looked at the screen, "Not knowing if Thessia survived, and knowing I'll probably never see it again if it did, everything and everyone we lost... I find myself taking comfort in any piece of the past I can, even if it's something as trivial as digging through uninteresting prothean archives that survived."

Mara kissed Li's forehead, "Whatever works, I suppose. I would rather you passed the time with me, if you catch my drift."

"Drift caught." Liara laughed, "Actually, I'm finding some interesting records of prothean experiments and research into humanity. Turns out they were quite fascinated with your species, they found your genetic diversity quite intriguing. It's quite interesting."

"Yeah. Two-legged lab rats, whoopie!" Mara rolled her eyes, "Wait, what kind of experiments are you talking about? Any cheese and mazes involved?"

"What kind of data could you possibly get from that?"

Mara shrugged, "No clue. But seriously, what did they do?"

Liara scrolled through her datapad, "Mostly observational; they'd implant trackers and data gathering devices into humans and track their daily development, comparing the data to determine genetic differences. Protheans share the same amino-acid and carbon base humans and asari do, but the variation within your species lends itself to medical experimentation and breakthroughs."

"Seriously?" Mara looked out the window, "I think... I think I encountered one of those data containers."

"By the goddess, of course! The sphere we encountered on Eletania! A shame we can't return there to analyze the sphere again with the proper context." She looked at her pad again, "There is one curious entry. Here, records of a recolonization involving one thousand females and males to another planet similar to earth. I think they were going to investigate your species' ability to adapt to new conditions."

"Did the experiment not finish?"

Liara nodded, "This experiment only has the specimen transfer and first yearly report logged. The second report, if my calculations are correct, would have been just after the Reaper attack on their civilization."

"Wouldn't we have discovered a planet full of non-earth humans?" Mara sat on the desk, dangling her legs off the edge, "Seems like kind of a big deal."

"I've never heard of the relay they reference in the research notes. Could be the relay was somehow destroyed during the Prothean war, or otherwise became unserviceable." She shrugged, "A shame we can't investigate this further, the lack of any relay at all puts a hamper on any exploration missions."

"Where do you think it is?"

"Not terribly far from Sol, I think. I can't pinpoint an exact location from these notes, but the in-depth analysis of the star they performed matches Beta Thyllus, which is roughly 5 light years from here." Liara smiled, "If you want a long vacation, it would only take 5 or 6 months for a ship at FTL to arrive there."

Mara tilted her head, "Actually, the possibility of a human population that developed completely independent of our own, plus stands an extremely good chance of being untouched by the Reapers, might be of interest to the new Brass. They're pushing the whole "upward and onward" schtick pretty hard. I'll drop a line to Hackett, couldn't hurt."

* * *

"I must admit Captain, your visits are never dull." Hackett descended the staircase from the chamber, "The Parliament is actually considering giving you the resources to investigate this prothean experiment."

"Captain?" Liara gave Mara a curious glance, "You were promoted and you didn't tell me?"

Mara shrugged, "Didn't seem that important at the time. Besides, I've been performing all the duties of a Captain for the past year, all they did was let me wear the stripes associated with said duties."

Liara giggled, "And all you had to do was stop the Reapers. I shudder to think what it'll take for you to become an admiral."

"I know, right?"

"Your Spectre status and brief association with Cerberus, plus the whole Batarian fiasco, kind of complicated your promotion schedule." Hackett took a seat across from her, "If I had it my way you'd be wearing admiral stripes and commanding a fleet, not taking an old cruiser on some long-shot first contact mission with humans." He held up his hand and smiled at Liara, "Not that I don't see the importance of investigating this discovery. But there are more important things that we could be utilizing our resources on."

Mara pulled Liara close, "I appreciate your confidence in me, but I'm not the admiral type. Besides, a year or so away from the hectic politics and shifting political minefield couldn't hurt. And I'd get to make up two lost years to someone rather important."

"Well, you've done nothing if not earn the right to take the assignment you want." Hackett stood, brushing the wrinkles out of his shirt, "I'll tell them you'd be willing to take the command position if they approve this mission."

* * *

"Here's hoping." Mara held up her crossed fingers.

"So... do we push the ship there, or..." Liara looked around the old Turian dreadnought, "Glad they spared no expense on this mission." She crossed her arms, "I suppose my laboratory is a re purposed storage closet, hmm?"

Mara sighed and rubbed the bridge of her nose, "Li, we kind of lost 80% of our fleet in a massive war with sythetic super-ships a year ago, the fact that we're getting anything other than a Kodiak shuttle with a salvaged hyperdrive stapled to the roof is something to be happy about."

"Yippie." Liara shouldered her bag, "I'll count my blessings that we have a stateroom to ourselves, I thought Turian commanders shared the same quarters as the regular men."

"They do, but since we half less than half of a normal crew, we can set one room aside for just you and me." Mara kissed Liara's forehead, "But it's not all bad news: I had a queen-sized bed put in there, the ship is fully stocked for a two-year journey and every surviving vid I could track down is loaded on the entertainment systems. Oh, and your utility closet has as close to a full lab as we could make."

"You do know how to spoil a girl." Liara kissed Mara gently, "I'll put my things away and meet you on the bridge."

Mara made her way up to the command deck, stepping over the not-so-elegantly connected bulkheads. Turian ships were made for combat, with aesthetics a distant fourteenth in the design criteria. The result was a ship that, brand new probably looked outdated, had the appearance of a ship who had been out of commission for a few decades. But what they lacked in amenities and looks, they made up for in reliability, efficiency and speed, the latter two being why this ship was chosen for this mission.

The mission's launch ceremony barely warranted the name, with only a handful of people attending and the only operating news-media outlet broadcasting the launch. A year ago, such a mission would've garnered weeks of fanfare and media attention, culminating in a massive ceremony with all the trim and trappings you could imagine.

"So how is the old girl?" Mara leaned against the pilot's seat, looking down at Cortez, "Think you can handle her?"

"Well, she's not a UT-47." Cortez shifted in his seat, "But I'll get the hang of her. I'll give the Turians credit, they can make a nice ship. She may not look like much, but she'd out-fly most of our ships any day."

"Good thing Joker isn't here, he'd take that personally." Mara laughed, "Glad you came along, Steve. The more friends around, the better."

"And you still brought me along?" Vega leaned against the bulkhead, "Or am I just here for the eyecandy?"

Mara grinned and shrugged, "Eyecandy. Honestly, I can't stand you as a person."

"You and Esteban both, Lola." Vega smirked, "I'm guessing the real reason I'm here is if these... separated humans of ours aren't so thrilled with being discovered."

"Maybe." Mara shrugged, "It's more of an uncanny intuition that humans, regardless of where we are, tend to piss people off or each other off. I give it a 40% chance we come across a planet with some kind of war being fought."

Cortez laughed, "Your faith in your fellow man is inspiring, Captain."

"I had that faith once, when I was seven." Mara looked wistful, "Then I met my first politician. Suddenly all those global wars from earth's past we learned about made sense."

"So... something I'm a little fuzzy on: if the Crucible vaporized all Reaper tech, how is it that we still have eezo cores?" Vega scratched his head, "Because, wasn't that eezo tech Reaper based?"

Mara shook her head, "Actually no. Originally, it was Reaper based, but after who-knows how many cycles the actual technology that was utilized became something different. The reason the relays, Reapers and Citadel went belly up was because they hadn't changed at all. The virus that overloaded all of the Reaper technology was tailored for Reapers only, our technology changed enough to be mostly immune."

"So the bug was so old it only infected the old machinery?" Vega summarized, "So, why do none of our weapons work?"

"Yeah, see, that I don't understand. There are quite a few instances where one thing works, but the other similar thing doesn't. All of the Quarian and Asari eezo cores went dormant, and the Daedelus-class Alliance cruisers lost theirs, yet the rest of the fleet's were fine. Our heavy weapons like the Cain, the Avalanche, work but our pistols and rifles don't."

"Which is why we're sporting 2140-era rifles." Vega laughed, "I've maybe seen one of those in the museum, you expect me to fight with them?"

Cortez laughed, "What's wrong, Vega? Can't handle a different kind of point-and-click interface?"

"Hey, there is more to a weapon than pointing and clicking." Vega took a stance, pretending to hold a rifle, "You gotta know her, mano. She's like a beautiful mujer; you gotta caress her, figure out her quirks, the tricks to making her work... can't just manhandle her like a putana and expect her to save your ass when you need it most."

Mara nodded her head towards the cargo bay; "We have five months to get acquantied with our new dates, I set up a firing range in the shuttlebay. Care for a double-date?"

"Lola, I would be honored." He bowed and gestured for Mara to lead, "This way I can check you out the whole way there..." he muttered.

"Careful, soldier. My fiancee could kick your ass." Mara laughed.

"I might just let her." He ducked Mara's swipe, holding his hands up defensively, "Easy there Lola! I'm kidding, chicka!"

"Watch yourself Vega."

"Captain." Mara's head came up off the pillow slightly, causing Liara to stur softly next to her. "Captain." She now made the connection between the voice and the ship's comm unit on the wall, which she leaned over to hit, "Go ahead Cortez."

"Been waiting to say this for awhile, but land ho Captain. We're about twenty minutes out from our mystery planet."

Mara gently shook Liara awake and swung her feet out of the bed, stretching and yawning, "Out-freaking-standing. I'll be in the CIC in ten. Shepard out." She smiled as Liara hugged her from behind, "The moment of truth... now we get to see if your breadcrumbs lead us to a pot of gold."

Liara rested her chin on Mara's shoulder, "Y'know, now that I think of it, I think I got one of the numbers wrong. We actually need to be on the other side of the arm." She giggled as Mara lightly smacked her cheek, "What do you think we'll find?"

"We can make a logical guess." Mara stood, grabbing the shirt tossed over the bedpost, "A civilization not far from where we were in 2140, differences in architecture and design obviously... maybe differences in fuel sources depending on the planet's natural resources. But by and large, I don't see them being very 'alien' at all."

"I see someone has picked up a few archaeological deduction skills." Liara selected one of Mara's old uniforms from the closet, finding the human casual outfits far more comfortable than her laboratory scrubs or armor.

Mara kissed Liara's cheek as she buttoned up her shirt, "We've shared so many memories, I could probably get a bachelor's degree in the subject overnight. See you in the CIC dear."

Outside, the hallways were busier than normal as everyone ran back and forth, preparing for arrival. In the CIC, a holographic projection of the planet was slowly being rendered as their scanners revealed more detail. Mara leaned against the podium on her command station, tenting her fingers and analyzing the image in front of her.

"Well, that looks promising." Liara finished fixing her collar as she walked up, "I see continents, island chains, oceans. Looks very similar to Earth, seems to be in a 26 hour day, 370 days per year cycle." She walked up next to Mara, lightly hip-bumping her out of the way and typing at the console, "Oxygen/Nitrogen atmosphere similar to earth. Hmmm, slightly less gravity. Strange considering the physical size, could indicate extensive subterranean caverns." She brought up a more detailed scan, "Shepard! I'm detecting objects in space! Non-natural objects, they seem to be satellites of sorts."

Mara leaned forward, "Weapons platforms? Should we be worried?"

"No. These are weapon platforms, but they appear to be pointing at the surface. There are also a plethora of communication's platforms, I'll try to tap into one and get a better idea of what kind of civilization we can expect to find down there."

"So much for my Utopia." Mara zoomed in on the satellites, "Any way to know if these are for a current war, or leftovers from one that's already ended?"

"I don't recognize this energy signature, but judging by the levels present around each platform I'd say they were fired about 14 years ago." She scrolled through the list, "Goddess... they were all fired in at that time, a handful since then. The level of destruction must've been massive."

Mara leaned against the railing, "So we discovered a human race that has already destroyed itself." She shook her head, "The sad thing is I'm not entirely surprised."

"Not destroyed yet, Mara." Liara zoomed in on the planet, showing a city, "I'm picking up a good bit of radio chatter from this city, seeing evidence of large vehicle movement too. There is still a population down there, and in the possession of technology."

"Maybe the ones that set off the satellites, the victors." Mara gnawed her lower lip, "I doubt we'll get any more information from up here. See any place we can set down and do some old-fashioned intelligence gathering?"

"Here. There appears to be a village not too far from the main city that has been abandoned for some time. I'm picking up some movement, but it's probably wild animals that moved in after the humans left." Liara turned to Mara, "I'll keep an eye on things from up here. Might be better if the team that makes first contact is all human."

"Good idea." Mara keyed her radio, "Vega, Williams, meet me in the shuttlebay. We're going for a walk." She kissed Liara's cheek, "I'll be back before you know it. I'll try to bring back some local desserts for ya."

* * *

"Any new developments with our LZ, Liara?" Mara idly flipped the cover on her scope open and closed as she bounced slightly in the descending shuttle.

"I'm picking up activity just east of your position, they appear to be heading your direction. I'll keep an eye on things, but I'd recommend you land outside the town and sneak in."

Mara gave Ash a curious glance, "So... I picked the only abandonded town on the planet that is in the process of being reclaimed? Wonderful. What can you tell me about the approaching army?"

"About a hundred or so vehicles; smaller tanks and aircraft forming a defensive perimeter around large trucks. Don't ask about the trucks, because I have no idea. It seems like whoever the force is mobilizing against doesn't want them to get there, I'm picking up massive battle signatures."

"We'll stay out of sight as best we can." Mara stood and walked over to the door, looking out of the opening door, "We're about a click north of the town, we'll keep radio silence as much as possible. Shepard out."

They stepped out of the shuttle into the light snowfall that blanketed the town. Mara checked her rifle, surveying the terrain, "Alright, listen up. Stay in the shadows as much as possible, only fire if fired upon. If this is an invasion force, we might want to avoid contact until we determine their willingness to have a civilized conversation."

Moving in a single-file formation, they slowly made their way down the small hill to the town below. They could faintly hear the distant sound of combat echoing across the terrain, smoke wafting up from destroyed vehicles in the distance. They stacked up at the entrance of an old abandoned building, Mara slowly leading them into the old wooden structure.

"Looks like no one has been here in ages, Captain." Ashley carefully picked her way through the old glass and debris to the front window, trying unsuccessfully to wipe the dirt off the old glass, "Clear out front... I think."

Mara looked around the room, a bar from the looks of it, and gently ran her fingers around the edges of a hole in the plaster, "Looks like a bullet hole. A bunch of them, something tells me this town wasn't abandoned willingly."

A loud explosion shook the building, the three of them dropping to their knees. "What was that?" Mara crouch-walked over to the window, trying to catch a glimpse of what made the explosion. "Smoke at the edge of town, I guess that force Liara was talking about made it."

They slowly made their way out of the bar, inching down a side-street. Mara dropped to her knee and signaled a stop, gesturing to the cross-street ahead of them. A few small, four legged creatures scuttled by, heading for a tunnel through the mountain.

"What the hell were those things?" Vega whispered.

"I get the feeling we don't want to know." Mara began moving forward again, carefully scanning the rooftops and windows for enemies, moving in the direction of the tunnel where small explosions and sounds of gunfire could be heard echoing off the walls.

She stopped suddenly, pushing Vega backwards into the shadows as tfour humans walked out of the tunnel. "Damn, they make you look positively skinny, Vega."

"Size ain't nothin' if you don't have tone, chicka."

Mara's ear twitched and a loud whistling sound slowly grew closer, "Unless their muscles can repel mortars, they're in trouble." The first impacts caused the four men from the tunnel to scatter to the edges of the road. Two of them entered a building on the right, while the other two made their way to the rooftops.

"Lets see how this plays out." Mara led her team behind the buildings, the sounds of combat from the rooftop giving the other humans positions away. Mara rounded an alleyway in time to see one of the humans struggling with an alien of some sort, nearly twice his size. Without thinking, she brought her rifle up and fired a burst into the creature, distracting it enough for the human to spin him around and snap his neck with a sickening crack.

He tossed the body aside, picking up his rifle and striding over to Mara, "I hate sound ungrateful, but who the hell are you?"

Mara waited for a massive truck to drive past to answer, extending her hand, "Captain Damara Shepard, System's Alliance."

The man crossed his arms, "A captain, huh? Hate to break it to ya, but rank don't mean for shit out here, so why don't we skip the formalities. You're human and considering we lost half of our force, that's enough for me. C'mon, I'll fill you in as we walk."

Another human, this one wearing a full mask, sprinted over, "Sarge! The trucks are almost in position, but we have enemies closing in fast."

"Looks like that long explanation is going to have to wait, we have some ass to kick."

Mara signaled for Ash and James to follow, jogging to catch up, "I never did get that name."

"Sergeant Marcus Fenix. I'll shake your hand when we don't have grubs to kill."

* * *

A/N: Yeah, so much for that utopia Mara had hoped for, but after the Reapers the Locust should be easy, right?


	2. Chapter 2

A/N: Yes! The story is being continued, fear not readers! I just recently moved to a different state and started a new job, hence the loooong hiatus. My schedule is still rather hectic, so the next update won't be right on the heels of this one, but it shouldn't be such a long wait either. Now, on to responding to some comments I recieved:

1) This story is post Mass Effect 3, takes place during Gears of War 2. I realize I probably could've made this clearer in the first chapter, my apologies. It takes place about a year after the whole death to Reapers via red firey death which Shepard barely survived (she's really starting to anger Death and his cronies).

2) Good catch with the initial population, I kind of just threw that number out there.

3) Fates of favorite characters: EDI lived by downloading herself into an electromagnetically sealed, unpowered data cache and jettisoning it. Not sure how I can work that into this story, but I'll try. Tali is alive and kicking and is the engineer on this mission, she'll pop up later. Some pockets of the Geth survived the blast, specifically runtimes and platforms too dated to implement the Reaper code (lucky them!). Joker is helping the Alliance, but thinks EDI died and therefore declined Shepard's offer. The other crewmembers survived for the most part, and are helping with reconstruction back on Earth. Liara, Garrus, Ashley, James, Cortez and Tali are the ones who joined Mara on her mission

4) Someone made the comment that it feels rushed. All I can say is; guilty as charged. Comes from trying to squeeze writing in between work and other demands on my time. All I can promise is that I'll work on it, although this chapter is probably going to feel rushed as well.

As you can see, I do read the comments and listen to them, so keep them coming! If you find something wrong with my recollection of GoW2 (I only played it once, but it made an impression) mention it, odds are I either tweaked it to fit the new story or I remembered that mission wrong. If you find errors or oddities with my writing, by all means mention them, that's how I improve. But enough about me, back to the story!

* * *

"They came out of nowhere?" Mara knelt next to, what she now knew was, a Locust and carefully rolled him over, running her omni-tool over the carcass and forwarding the readings to her ship, "You are one ugly creature." she muttered to herself.

Marcus patted Dizzy on the shoulder and walked over, "Ugly bastards popped right out of the damn ground, no warning at all. Hell, the only reason anyone is still alive on this planet is because we hadn't fully spun down from the last war yet."

Mara's followup question was interrupted by a COG trooper over the radio, "Inbound craft! Not friendly, not responding to hails! Treat as hostile!"

"Hold fire!" Mara hit Marcus' shoulder and ran for the trucks, "That's my shuttle, tell your men to stand down! It's on our side!"

The Kodiak narrowly dodged an AA burst, it's armor absorbing the small arms fire with little difficulty. "Cease fire, dammit! Cease fire!" The shots quickly petered out following Fenix' order, the shuttle slowly inching closer to it's designated landing zone, softly setting down amidst the tombstones and plinths without disturbing them.

"Dammit Cortez." Mara squeezed through the opening hatch, fuming "I told you to use 113.44 and radio me before you landed." She glanced around the interior and sighed, rubbing her forehead, "And what are you doing here? My orders were very specific."

"C'mon Shepard. Fancy new guns, new friends to go along with those guns, a whole new type of enemy to use those guns on?" Garrus shrugged and stood up, grinning in his awkward turian manner, "Did you really expect me to sit quietly on the ship calibrating the guns?"

"And did you expect me to stay up there when you're about to explore the home of a subterrainian civilization that remained undetected from even the Protheans?" Liara crossed her arms, "Plus puts you in extreme danger?"

Mara leaned on the container, "Liara, you're taking the shuttle back with Cortez. End. Of. Story. I am going down there as blind as a bat and I will not have you down there with me."

"I had a suspicion this might happen, and since I know all too well how stubborn you are, I went ahead and got this." Liara handed a datapad to Mara, placing her hands behind her back, "It's the orders for this mission, written by Hackett and the other admirals. My favorite part is block... four, where it lists the commander, and de-facto establishers of the final say... or should I say commander's'?"

"You..." Mara's shoulders slumped slightly and she rubbed the bridge of her nose, slowly shaking her head, "... conniving... blue... minx..."

Liara curtsied slightly, dantily taking the datapad back, "I learned from the best!"

"Lemme guess. Joker." Mara sighed tiredly.

"Perhaps a little, but I learned most of it from yours truly." She lightly poked Mara's shoulder with her index finger and smirked. "Besides, I just did this to make it easy. I would've won the argument anyway, but we're pressed for time."

"Oh really? You would've won anyway?" Mara looked incredulous, "Cold day in hell, T'Soni."

Liara spun, giving Mara a gentle smile and slowly walking towards her, voice dropping into a whisper, "Then the devil, as the humans would say, would've had to buy a parka, wouldn't he?"

Mara stared at her evenly, then slightly slumped her shoulders in defeat, "I hate you."

"Love you too, Shepard." Liara spun and introduced herself to an extremely amused looking Marcus Fenix, back to her normal doctoral self.

"It'll probably be dark down there." Mara felt Garrus behind her as he whispered, "I could shoot her if you wanted. Y'know, in a playful way."

"If you could place a concussive round right on that princess perfect backside of hers, I'd be grateful." Mara joked, opening the metal container inside the ship and doing a quick resupply/reequip. She paused briefly and smirked over her shoulder, "Actually, nevermind. I'll do it myself."

* * *

A small crowd was gathering outside the shuttle, soldiers gawking at the two strange aliens chatting with the human. Dom leaned in closer to Vega, "Dude, did I take a rock to the head? Because that chick looks blue."

Vega laughed, "Naw mano, your eyes are workin just fine. Our Dr. T'Soni is as blue as... ah..." He rubbed his neck, "Mierda. I had something for this... a blue ocean I guess."

Dom laughed and patted Vega's shoulder roughly, "Must be lonely at home with suave moves like that, huh? Say, are all them blue girls that easy on the eyes?"

"Even their abuelas... ahh, the really old ones, have bodies like that." He looked over his shoulder and nudged Dom, "Help me disperse the onlookers, will ya?" Vega whistled loudly, "Alright ladies, enough gawking. I may be new here, but I know you have better things to do."

"You heard the man, back to your duties. Move it!" Dom gave a slower soldier a slight kick in the tail as he jogged past, "Didn't like your friends being treated like zoo animals, eh?"

Vega laughed, "I didn't want your boys getting hurt, mano!" He spun Dom and pointed, "That redhead over there is loca, man, she woulda killed your boys for eyeing her fiancee like that."

Any further conversation was interrupted by the crew inside the Kodiak clearing out and running towards the trucks as the shuttle lifted off and bugged out in a hurry. Marcus fired up his comm, waving Dom and Vega to follow as they ran by, "Control, this is Delta. We got heavy incoming, we need any available air support to buy us some time while the Rigs deploy!"

"We see them too, Delta. Set up defensive positions, Ravens are inbound to do what they can. You need to start this invasion now." Marcus shouted his acknowledgement, running for one of the trucks that had been positioning themselves around the graveyard.

"I figure now's the time to ask, but..." Mara paused and looked up at the gigantic truck Dom was climbing up, "... what the hell are these rigs? And how are we getting underground?"

"In grind-lifts. Long story short, it's a self-propelled capsule that digs through the ground and busts through the roof of their caves. Behind the bulk of their army." Marcus grunted between words, rapidly climbing the ladder and stepping out onto a wide platform on top, "Grub'll never see us coming."

"That's for sure." Mara scoffed, "I'm sure the last thing they expect is an aerial insertion underground." She watched as the large towers extended, the doors to the lift pods opening and revealing room for two people braced against the walls. Mara raised an eyebrow in mild surprise, "So... we're going to dig through a thousand meters of rock in a soup can?"

Marcus laughed and patted Mara roughly on the shoulder, "C'mon Commander Shepard, are they short on adventure where you're from?" He whistled and twirled his hand, "Alright boys, lets get this invasion started! Defensive positions now, keep those grubs away from the rigs! Lets move!"

"Fenix. How long is this whole insertion going to take?"

"Each rig can burn through all eight grinders within twenty minutes if things go well, why?"

Mara grabbed his shoulder and spun him, pointing to incoming aerial units, "Because I seriously doubt we have twenty minutes." She jumped and yanked Liara down behind the rig's railing as a mortar exploded at the base, showering the platform with dirt and rocks.

Glancing quickly over the side, Vega fired a quick burst and ducked down as a hail of bullets answered his shots, "I second that sentiment, Commander. We have a fiesta down there, and they are not friendly."

"Izzy! Get these grinders moving! Tai, Dom, keep those grubs off the rig for a few minutes." He waved Mara and Liara towards the lifts, "You two are up first, get down there and secure a dropzone for the rest of us. Think you can handle that?"

Firing a quick burst to cover their movement away from the railing, Mara grinned dangerously, "Sending us down into the nest of the enemy? You have a peculiar way of greeting newcomers."

A loud screaming drew their attention to the source: a large, lanky Locust deftly wielding what appeared to be a dual-bladed chainsaw. Fenix pushed Mara unceremoniously towards the open grindlift, "Actually, I think you're getting the better end of the stick. Now move it, princess!"

The two girls leapt into the lift, quickly pulling the braces down over their chests as the doors slid shut. A few tense seconds passed and the lift dropped, slamming to a stop as it hit the earth, then shaking violently and resuming it's rapid downward pace. Mara and Liara clenched their jaws tightly, a headache rapidly developing as they were jerked back and forth by the lift impacting random clumps of dense rock and loose sand. The shaking stopped suddenly and the sensation of free-falling returned, followed a split second later by a bone-rattling impact on the stone floor of the cavern.

Mara was the first to free herself, falling gracelessly onto the floor with a loud grunt, the wind being completely forced from her a second later as Liara mirrored her ungainly tumble. Liara groaned and sat up, rubbing her forehead slowly and shaking her head a few times, "Not the smoothest ride I've experienced, but I can't deny it's effectiveness."

"Fun..." Mara gasped, pushing herself up onto her hands and knees, still fighting to get her breath back and gain a sense of her surroundings. She pushed back onto her knees and looked up just in time to see a second lift burst through the roof, almost directly above them. Diving onto Liara, they rolled off a small cliff as the lift impacted the ground where they had previously been kneeling, showering them in dirt and dust for the second time.

"I'm getting too old for this." Mara groaned, deciding to stay where she landed for a few moments, "Remind me to take up stamp collecting after this."

Liara waved at Vega and Ashley as they emerged from the grind-lift, giggling and offering Mara a hand, "Knowing your history, the stamps would probably self destruct when collected in sufficient quantity." She looked around the massive cavern, "Goddess... it's immense."

"We're not in Kansas anymore, Toto." Mara closed her eyes and rotated her head slowly until a loud crack sounded from her neck, causing her shoulders to slump and a relieved sigh to slide from her lips, "I don't care what the doctor says, that always makes me feel a million times better..." She opened her eyes and looked around the large cavern, "Hmm, looks like Fenix's intel was right; this insertion caught the ugly things with their pants down."

"A most unpleasant mental image..." Liara shook her head quickly, trying to force said image from her mind.

Another more grind-lift crashed through the roof, thankfully landing a reasonable distance away and not inducing yet another frantic leap to safety. Fenix and Dom quickly exited, Dom commenting on a fellow soldiers inability to hold his lunch on the ride down.

"Tai! Izzy! Anyone at the dig site, respond!" Fenix shook his head in frustration, "Control, Delta One is in the hollow. We've lost contact with the dig site, please advise. Control? Control! Ah, shit." He waved Shepard and her team over, "I've lost contact with Control, we're probably under too much rock for radio signals to get out, so we're on our own. These lifts are going to be coming down all over this cavern, we should try to meet up with as many teams as possible and coordinate an offensive until we get comms back."

"Delta, this is Carmine, are you there?" Fenix silently held his radio up so Shepard and the others could get on the same frequency.

"Yeah, I'm here Rook. Where are you?"

"My lift went off course. I'm here with Delta-Five and that weird alien guy the newcomers brought with them. Orders sir?"

"Understood, hold your position. We're comin to you." Fenix gestured for the team to follow him and took off jogging, following his soldiers locating beacon.

"Shepard, are you on this frequency?" Garrus' voice was accompanied by the sound of machine-gun fire in the background, "Looks like our presence was noticed, we're under heavy attack."

"We're on our way, Garrus. Just hold them off a little longer." Mara slid to a halt as the path they were following was blocked by what appeared to be root growth. Without hesitation, Marcus and Dom activated the chainsaw attachments on the bottom of their rifles, making short work of the roots and clearing a path.

Vega turned and thumbed in the direction of the sheared roots, "Shepard, I'd like to take this moment to mention my birthday is coming up."

"Noted. Now move!" They rushed through the open pathway, finding themselves in the ideal situation of being behind the force attacking the misguided lifts. Mara and Liara moved right, providing support from a distance while the rest fanned out and hit their flank hard, pushing the enemy force back slowly. Marcus and Dom both closed the distance and engaged the grubs with their lancers, slicing the enemies violently and grappling with them in hand to hand.

Electing to take the safer route, James and Ashley busied themselves with pushing forward on the right, pinching the enemy in a semicircle with Delta-Five comprising one end, Dom and Marcus the frontal wall and themselves, removing the locust's room to manouver or flank. The battle was hectic and vicious, but hardly in doubt as the ambushers became the ambushees and were slaughtered down to the last soldier.

Carmen shook his head as Fenix approached, "I tried, sir. There were too many. It was all I could do to save myself!"

Dom patted his shoulder, "Hey, you did good to survive like you did, rookie. That's what matters here."

Fenix stepped aside, having finally managed to contact his superiors, and discussed their next move while the others checked their equipment and prepared to move. Mara helped Dom and Carmen collect the tags of the fallen, which Dom reverently placed in a pouch on his belt, "You know the war is going badly when you bring an empty pouch just for this." He commented to no-one in particular, reverently ensuring each tag was securely inside.

"Alright, here's the plan." Fenix quickly strode over as a previously cloaked robot began working on a grind-lift behind him, "JACK is going to fix that lift and we're gonna use it to drill through this wall. Our mission is to find the Locust's home and blow it to hell."

"Sounds simple enough, whats the catch." A machine-gun burst whizzed overhead in answer to her question and she spun to see another wave of locusts approaching, "I had to say it."

"Yeah, you did, now help me keep them away from JACK!" Marcus hurled a grenade and levlled an enemy with a burst from his lancer, sliding down behind the rock formation for cover as the others spread out and began picking the enemies off one by one.

"Can't you tell that thing to work faster?" Ashley twitched as a chunk of rock dislodged next to her head, prompting her to jump out of cover and mow down the grub responsible with her rifle before being forced to take cover again.

Dom threw a grenade of his own, grinning in satisfaction as the explosion sent two locusts flying in multiple directions, "If he worked quickly, it'd take away from the tense drama of the situation."

"Some ladies just don't understand good storytelling, mano." Vega whooped as his rifle burst caught an enemy between the eyes, dropping it in a crunching spray of blood.

"Alright, this isn't getting us anywhere. Garrus, you're with me. The rest of you, stay here while we handle this." Mara leapt over the rock wall, Garrus close behind her, and attempted to flank the enemy towards the left, "Okay, Garrus, here's the plan-" Her words were cut off by a large explosion taking out part of the wall in her path and revealing enemy re-enforcements and inducing an unceremonious scramble back to the safety of their defensive line. Mara awkwardly scrambled around the corner of the formation as bullets assaulted her shields and the earth around her, leaning up against the rocks and panting loudly.

"Wow, you two back so soon? Fight them off already?" Liara snidely commented.

Garrus joined in on the ribbing, "Hey Shepard, care to fill me in on the rest of the plan now?"

"If we this, I'm going to kill both of you... slowly..." Mara peeked around the corner and receved a face-full of dust and rock-shards as the enemy opened fire on her position, "Dammit all!" She rocked back and forth, rubbing her eyes and cursing under her breath for a few minutes before whirling out of cover and dropping two enemies with rapid headshots, the rest of the pinned team choosing this moment to press the attack on the enemy forces, pushing them back away from the grind-lifts and JACK.

The enemy attacks slowly petered out, with the remaining grubs either pulling back or being felled by the accurate fire of the small force opposing them and JACK chimed in success; the grind-lift activating and quickly boring a hole through the wall.

"That worked better than I thought it would." Mara brushed dirt and rock-chips out of her bright red hair, then coughed and waved her hand in front of her a few times, "The dust, however, is pretty much as bad as expected."

"C'mon, lets go. We need to press this advantage before the grubs react to our presence on their doorstep." Marcus flipped his flashlight on and quickly followed the grind-lift, the rest of the team slowly following, each with their own thoughts of what was waiting for them deeper in the catacombs.

* * *

A/N: Not exactly the longest chapter, but it advances the plot. Those of you who have played GoW2 can probably see some of the comical opportunities up ahead. Rest assured, I will exploit as many of those as I can. Oh, and props if you can find the references to other games or movies I tossed in.

So, yeah, off to finish the whole move-in process and do more work! Holla!


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